Contrast-enhanced Ultrasonic Examination in the Diagnosis of Breast Diseases: Current Trends and Prospects

<jats:p> <jats:bold> <jats:italic>Aim.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> To examine the capabilities and prospects of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in patients with focal breast lesions. </jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:bold> <jats:italic>Materials and Methods.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> This prospective study included 66 women aged 33 to 71 years with focal breast lesions. The diagnostic ultrasound suite included breast ultrasound in B-mode and echo-contrast mode using the Sonovue contrast agent. </jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:bold> <jats:italic>Results.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> The mean time of contrast agent arrival and the time from the start of injection to peak accumulation in malignant breast lesions were significantly reduced by 1.6 times. Conversely, the peak intensity (PI) in malignant breast lesions increased by 1.5 times compared to the peak intensity in benign lesions. Contrast washout times increased by 1.4 times in malignant breast lesions compared to benign breast lesions. Furthermore, significantly higher peak intensities were observed in malignant breast lesions, along with an increasing slope of the TIC curve and area under the curve (p &lt; 0.01). When analyzing the graph of the contrast enhancement time versus intensity curves, it was noted that in 88.4 % of cases of malignant focal breast lesions, the curve pattern was rapidly increasing and slowly decreasing, while in benign breast lesions, two curve patterns were observed: in 75.3 % of cases, the curve pattern was slowly increasing and rapidly decreasing, and in 17.8 % of cases, it was rapidly increasing and rapidly decreasing. </jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:bold> <jats:italic>Conclusions.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> Contrast-enhanced ultrasound is a promising tool for diagnosing breast diseases in clinical practice in Russian healthcare, given its high information content, rapid procedure, and absence of radiation exposure. </jats:p>